Battle of the Sexes
25/11/17 Filed in: Cinema
Once again we saw a film on its opening day. I can't remember watching the original match upon which this film is based, although I do recollect the news around it at the time. And I knew who won.
While Emma Stone is a good look-alike for Billie Jean King, Steve Carrell is even more of a doppelganger for Bobby Riggs. And both convey well the respective personalities and beliefs of the people they are playing. An impassioned believer in sexual equality pitted against the chauvinistic misogynist.
However, this isn't really a film about tennis. Yes, we see parts of the famous match, but you don't need to be a tennis aficionado to recognise that the tennis we see isn't consistent with Billie Jean King at the top of her game. But there's only so much an actor can do to inhabit a role. No, this is a story about King's fight for equality in the game, and a far less public battle with her own sexuality.
Married to Larry, a handsome man, King's head is turned by a hairdresser, Marilyn Barnett, played by Andrea Riseborough. You couldn't imagine that a hair trim could be so sensual, but these actors will convince you. So we have King struggling with her inner self while at the same time taking on the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, who have expelled her and a group of other top class female players over a dispute concerning the disparity in prize money between male and female players. King, helped by Gladys Heldman (brilliantly played by Sarah Silverman), founder of World Tennis magazine, set up an alternative female tour. And it was very successful.
Riggs was incensed by this, and being an inveterate gambler, sought to set up the 'Battle of the Sexes', where he was going to show once and for all why female tennis players didn't deserve equal treatment to men. King rebuffed him, but he managed to persuade Margaret Court to take part. Despite King's plea to Court not to risk undermining the women's position, she agreed, and was roundly beaten.
Riggs' diatribe was only amplified by his success, forcing King to take up the challenge to restore the women's honour. All this is taking place against a backdrop of turmoil in her private life, as she deals with the emotions of a female lover and a temporarily estranged husband.
The match turns out to be a circus, a culmination of a succession of bizarre publicity stunts by Riggs. Meanwhile we see King training hard and taking it very seriously. The pre-match meeting between King and Riggs in the Houston Astrodome, which held 30,472 people on the day (still the largest crowd for a tennis match) was more reminiscent of the fanfare before a long-awaited heavyweight title fight. King enters in a garish sedan chair, carried of course by four beefy men, giving Riggs a baby pig in reference to his male chauvinist attitude. In addition to the enormous crowd the Battle of the Sexes was seen by up to 90 million TV viewers around the world.
We all know what happened, of course.
This is a very human story and by all accounts, give or take a few chronological liberties, is told in an accurate and honest way.
Riggs was incensed by this, and being an inveterate gambler, sought to set up the 'Battle of the Sexes', where he was going to show once and for all why female tennis players didn't deserve equal treatment to men. King rebuffed him, but he managed to persuade Margaret Court to take part. Despite King's plea to Court not to risk undermining the women's position, she agreed, and was roundly beaten.
Riggs' diatribe was only amplified by his success, forcing King to take up the challenge to restore the women's honour. All this is taking place against a backdrop of turmoil in her private life, as she deals with the emotions of a female lover and a temporarily estranged husband.
The match turns out to be a circus, a culmination of a succession of bizarre publicity stunts by Riggs. Meanwhile we see King training hard and taking it very seriously. The pre-match meeting between King and Riggs in the Houston Astrodome, which held 30,472 people on the day (still the largest crowd for a tennis match) was more reminiscent of the fanfare before a long-awaited heavyweight title fight. King enters in a garish sedan chair, carried of course by four beefy men, giving Riggs a baby pig in reference to his male chauvinist attitude. In addition to the enormous crowd the Battle of the Sexes was seen by up to 90 million TV viewers around the world.
We all know what happened, of course.
This is a very human story and by all accounts, give or take a few chronological liberties, is told in an accurate and honest way.